Early on in my mothering career, I sought to balance being a stay at home mom with working at home. It is truly a daily exercise of time management. What did it look like for me you ask?
I love to learn new things and I had a “million” things going on at once. I tried to “balance” everything much like a juggler kept objects in motion in the air. You guessed it. I could only keep everything I had going on for a certain amount of time. Usually it was 1 week. Sometimes I got it up to 2 weeks. Has that ever happened to you? You want so bad to do everything well, that you give it your best shot – but it didn’t last?
Needless to say, I was pretty frustrated. I had my fair share of ups and downs building my business and parenting my children at the same time. My time management skills were still being developed as I practiced what I learned. Thank God I have an awesome business coach who pointed out to me that what I was doing was like being yoked to slavery. I needed to re-evaluate and learn to Prioritize.
Most of us know what prioritize means. Basically it’s to do the most important thing first. But how many of us can say that we regularly prioritize everything successfully? I’m still growing in this area of time management, but over the years I have discovered 3 main things that help me prioritize regularly. Here they are:
1. Plan out 3 months in advance. For instance, I mark on my calendar when I will have quiet time to myself, when my husband and I will have weekly alone time, when the kids will have no school, when birthday parties and other activities are, when I maintain the home with cleaning, groceries, menu planning & cooking, and when I work on my business.
2. Then plan out each day in advance at a set time of the day. For example, each night after the kids are in bed and I’m done with business hours, I plan out the next day what important tasks need to get done and write it as a to-do list for that day. Of course, the items that don’t get done for that day get moved to the next day. And that’s how I stay on task.
3. Develop the ability to say “no” to ourselves. I’ve learned that effective time management means keeping my priorities straight. A huge key to that is being able to set aside my emotions to assess the pros and cons when I want something. The answer could be “yes, no, or wait”, but it’s the ability to delay gratification that actually empowers us to get done what needs to get done first.
When we develop the muscles to plan and to control ourselves by writing in our calendars, time management ceases to be this elusive thing that’s out of reach. And when things and circumstances come at us, we are not so much in reaction mode due to the lack of planning and self-control. Doing this frees me to be the very best work at home mom that I can be!
The Importance Of Outsourcing To Save Time
Is your time valuable?
If you’re as busy as most people are, then time is the most valuable commodity, and serious time management is a necessity. We see this more pronounced with doctors, politicians, executives – basically any profession that requires a secretary or administrative assistant to help with running the daily tasks.
But what if you’re a stay-at-home mother? Does that mean that your time is less valuable? Not at all. While stay at home moms may not seem to be on as strict a schedule like other professions in the community are, time management at home is just as important as outside the home. Our children are little only once in their lifetime. We watch them grow in the most amazing phase of their life – the beginning. We get to have input into what they watch on TV, what they eat, what they learn. We get to spend quality time with them to talk, encourage and teach them important values for life. It’s an exciting time.
Now enter in a home-based business, those of you who have one already. And those of you who don’t, consider the time factor here. It really should be a part-time endeavor for stay at home moms, because our priorities are family before business. Now…proper time management would have us craft a business plan, where we have set business hours to focus on working our business. If we’ve planned effectively, then our business would produce the profit we need to re-invest back into our business, and continue to establish that basis for growth.
Since a home-based business is a business asset – especially in trying economic times, what we’re after is a steady action plan for long-term growth, mid-term growth, and short-term growth. We need to have elements in place to assist us in leveraging our time so that whatever business activities we do, we do it effectively. We work smarter, not harder, and with better time management. There’s nothing more frustrating than working hard and feeling guilty about not spending enough time with our family. But it is a wonderful thing to be able to work strategically, make a profit, and have the freedom to enjoy it with the people we love most.
That’s why it is so important to outsource to save time. Outsourcing work to someone who’s strength is your weakness can alleviate so much headache and unnecessary pain. Outsourcing is a great time management strategy, and that’s part of what you’re paying for. Sure, you can do it for free – but that means you have to spend more time to do everything yourself, including figuring things out yourself, finding the right resources, and then troubleshooting your own testing. Why not hire someone who has the expertise to do what you either don’t know how to do, are not very good at, or just don’t have the time to do? It will not only cut down on frustration, it will also put you into profit that much faster so you actually have the time to enjoy being with your family.
